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"Never under any condition should this nation look at an immigrant as primarily a labor unit. He should always be looked at primarily as a future citizen."-Theodore Roosevelt, 1917

"It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people."-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Isaona i tumungo’ ya ha sedi, ki ayo i mismo umisagui hao. Greater is the fault of he who allows the injustice upon himself. "-Chamorro proverb

"There can be no tyrants where there are no slaves." -Jose Rizal

"I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights." -Bishop Desmond Tutu

Disclaimer: This is not a legal blog. No opinion or statement should be perceived as legal advice. All posts are the opinion of the author or contributors who are expressing their First Amendment Rights.

The Fitial Administration known for thumbing its nose at the law and writing its own rules (as in the costly anti-federalization lawsuit, Massage-Gate, Parole-Gate, and Gun-Gate to cite just a few examples) has announced that its newly formed "working group" of elected officials and department heads will submit its own "Report to Congress" regarding the status of the foreign contract workers.

The Consolidated Natural Resources Act, PL 110-229, contained a provision requiring the Department of Interior to submit a report to the U.S. Congress by May 10, 2010, which would make recommendations on the status of the long-term foreign workers.

Governor Fitial and some other elected officials did not approve of the report. Fitial did not meet with the Assistant Secretary of Interior who personally went to Saipan to hand-deliver the report to the governor. Instead he went to Managaha Island and Lt. Governor Inos met with Mr. Babauta.

Demapan said the Fitial administration has concerns about the data gathered by the Federal Labor Ombudsman, as well as the survey of only 10 Saipan Chamber of Commerce members to decide the fate of the CNMI economy, among other things.

“There are two main issues here-Interior's failure to meet the consultation requirement, and the credibility of data used to determine the future of the Commonwealth. One of the major tasks is to identify the potential impacts on the economy of these decisions,” the press secretary added.

Demapan also said the working group's membership has expanded to some 20, from only 13 on Tuesday.

The Fitial administration claims it was not consulted about Interior's recommendations to grant permanent immigration status to long-term aliens. Interior has belied this, saying there had been numerous consultations and meetings on the matter.

Among the options Interior presented Congress with is to confer outright U.S. citizenship to aliens who have been in the CNMI legally for at least five years, or permanent residency leading to U.S. citizenship.

Rep. Fredrick Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) earlier said one of the options the CNMI working group is looking at is to increase the five-year threshold to eight, 10, or 15 years.

The same government that refused to share statistics and data with the federal government is challenging data that the federal ombudsman gathered? Classic!

Apparently public hearings, a visit by a Codel and meetings with the governor only count as consultation if the content of the report meets his approval.

Perhaps the intent of this "working group" is to keep the members of the disenfranchised underclass without status for as long as possible as a way to maintain control. How could this be beneficial?

Who are all of the members of this group? Do they include some of the "volunteers" and attorneys who were called on to draft the "protocol" and PL 17-1, the CNMI's version of the Arizona law?

According to reports, if the "working group" can't draft their report for Congress by the May 10, 2010 deadline that the group is aiming for, then they will shoot for the May 18, 2010 hearing to submit the report.

increase the five-year threshold to 10, or 15 years then the rest below will go home, the impact of labor problem still unsolved, why employer want to hire nonresident workers?.., because they know how to payback on privilege they got. Why don't we give that privilege to boost themselves to do hard work and participate grow our economy? think for the country's future not your future.

Huhummmmnnnnn....what else is new? Que sera sera. This is what my mother sang to me when I was a toddler and I do remember the lyrics. "Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see. Que sera sera." After spending 20 years of my life in Saipan, having a son, praying that he will be a good law abiding citizen and perhaps, a future leader, I pray CNMI to be the land of milk and honey in the next decade or score. Our bible forefathers have waited 40 years or more to experience overflowing blessings and I hope our generation is an exception. Peace to all!

Lower the threshold to everyone present in the CNMI on the day the law was passed, but make everyone meet the existing qualifications for permanent residency and/or citizenship. That is what is fair to both sides.

MS WENDY, I TRULY PRAY THAT GOD BLESS U WITH SO MUCH COURAGE, PASSION AND WISDOM TO HELP US BRING OUR PLIGHT TO AN END,,YOU ARE A WONDERFUL PERSON AN AMERICAN GABRIELA SILANG!!HAVE A GOOD HEALTH!GOD BLESS U, MS PAMELA BROWN AND MS. TINA SABLAN!!

The Interior report is simply about the transition process to U.S. Immigration and what, if anything, is to be done to confer benefits to the guest workers. What is the harm of conferring benefits to those whom have been here for many years, say 10 or more years? Absolutely none. Voting? We can have 3,000 Marines here and their families and be outvoted. That was why the U.S. wanted us to handle our own immigration-- to be RESTRICTIVE in application, not lax. Instead we opened the doors to thousands and now we are offended that they may become immigrants for the United States? I don't think Interior is really asking Governor Fitial for his input: he is TELLING Fitial what it wants to do. If he doesn't like it, go to Congress and see if you can persuade the Democrat-controlled house, who will remind you of Abramoff and DeLay, to listen to you. Go ahead. Go there Gov.

Thousands of productive and contributing guest workers becoming permanent residents of the United States is a GOOD THING for our Commonwealth. Hug a Guest Worker today and say thank you and we look forward to saying, "Welcome!"

PS-- I am Chamorro. Born here. Raised here. Live here. Staying here. Will die here. And I have plenty of room in my heart and home island for good people. Racists and hatemongers need not stick around.

----Well, let's see. What is the "real" fear here? I thought good government was accomplished with good ideas and sensible leadership. If "guest workers" are as sensible as they are hardworking, if they are as practical in government as they are as residents, if they are as sensible as leaders as they are as employees, then no one has anything to fear.

Government will yield benefit to everyone, indigenous and immigrants alike if those are the traits potential new leaders bring to the political table.

The only thing "locals" have to fear from "improved status" and citizenship for our former "guests" is loss of their illusion of racial superiority.----

Are you serious? Why did they not break down the years by every year? It's simple. It's because 5 years is the highest that the Obama Administration proposed. Mr. Babauta is not a game-player and is not "up to anything" as you so ridiculously suggest.

Look, does the CNMI really need 16,000 workers as they claimed in the wasteful Fitial lawsuit or do they just want to maintain an indentured, disenfranchised underclass that they have power over and can continue to cheat and kick around?

If the long-term workers are given outright citizenship or green cards without restrictions then those with secure jobs and employers that treat them well and pay them well will stay. Those who have no jobs in the CNMI will hopefully be able to get to the mainland or Guam to find jobs!

You are a voice of a reason for young kids to go school and learn reading comprehension and basic research skills. You are the voice of reason for people to learn to think before they talk. The reason why is that you are shinning example of what happens when someone either is ignorant, doesn't do proper research or is just dumb.

The report from DOI that was given to congress contained a slew of appendices that broke down the numbers every which way you would like them. The appendix, if you cared to ask to see it had much more detailed information. If you happened to research and do you homework you would look like such a fool for ranting about something without knowing a damn thing. Go cry in your room and come out when you are done.

Unlike our own local CNMI government the DOI report actually had conducted studies and pooled resources to gather data. The local government did not turn over any data to DOI.

It is sickening that the local government is now asking DOI to turn over all their data.

Also the local government is claiming DOI's report was rushed. Their solution: Do one of their own in 4 days ! :-) WTF?

[Y]ou are shinning (sic) example of what happens when someone either is ignorant, doesn't do proper research or is just dumb.

The report from DOI that was given to congress contained a slew of appendices that broke down the numbers every which way you would like them. The appendix, if you cared to ask to see it had much more detailed information. If you happened to research and do you homework you would look like such a fool for ranting about something without knowing a damn thing. Go cry in your room and come out when you are done.

If you don't have the facts or law on your side, attack the messenger. Typical Glen-Hunter-style retort.

Go ahead, rely on footnotes and appendices, none of the latter of which were posted on the Interior website along with the body of the result-oriented report.

And you know what? Whatever appendices were added don't change Interior's Incomplete Answer to Question #3, quoted in full at the comment above, that flouts the law and the will of Congress.

If you can't answer a plain and simple question by Congress, no amount of appendices, blog comments, or gratuitous ranting insults is going to change that obvious fact.

Interior is self-evidently hiding something in its answer -- the information Congress and the people of the CNMI need to make a realistic assessment of what length of service in the CNMI is optimum for granting enhanced status to unskilled guest workers not otherwise eligible for USCIS benefits. 8 years, 12 years, or 15 years?

How many and who would be covered by various such policy decisions, and what effect would this have on the CNMI? These are the numbers Congress asked for, and these are the numbers Tony Babauta is hiding because they don't match his result-oriented, pre-decided recommendation of what he and Pamela S. Brown want Congress to do.

Shame, shame, shame.

This is much worse than any data the CNMI is allegedly withholding from DHS. Interior is attempting to deceive the United States Congress!

Perhaps there should be no surprise there, since David Barrett Cohen seems to have gotten away with it in his lies during Congressional testimony (e.g., People's Republic of China influence on CNMI Office of Refugee Protection) in the run-up to Public Law 110-229. But I don't think Interior can get away with obstructing Congress twice, and Tony is not as slick and smooth as Dave.

If you don't have a legitimate complaint, make a mountain out of a molehill. Better yet, create the mountain from thin air. You are ridiculous. All of the federal officials you are attacking AND Glen Hunter have more integrity in one cell than the governor and his inner circle.

You are defending people who refuse to give the public information that IS public and attacking the U.S. for NO REASON!

Hello--- the commenter you are responding to said ASK FOR THE Appendices. The comment did not say they were posted anywhere. Can you read?

Even the progressive commentator Ruth Tighe, well-photographed on the Unity March and elsewhere, is asking in her column why Interior did not tell Congress how many foreign national workers had been in the CNMI more than ten years.

Wow. You are upset about the lack of transparency in the DOI report. You, along with Ruth Tighe, are mad that the numbers are not broken down in more detail in the report and that you must ask to get the appendices. That is tragic ain't it?

Hmmm. Why, pray tell, are you not upset (and have you not ever been upset) about the local government keeping or making available ANY statistics for the public with any sort of detail.

Where are they? Where are yours and CNMI labor and old immigration statistics?

Where are CNMI Labor links online to the statistics on Guest workers and foreigners in the CNMI?

Where is the open government and transparency crap you are throwing at the DOI report?

I have asked CNMI Labor & Immigration for 3 years for a breakdown of numbers or even just a BIG ROUND number of aliens in the CNMI.

Guess what, ass clown? NADA. Or as Kilili, says, natting!

They have produced no report, no statistic, no natting, that indicates how many Aliens, how many working, how many unemployed, how many years, etc.

CNMI labor and the rest of this government were and are lead by a bunch of imbeciles.

Absolutely right! Congress will not be fooled! Reading comprehension is required but hit the GAO report again and you will see how they are not at all fooled by the petty antics of this administration. LOL

so if i understand her correctly, she is afraid of our fragile system of CNMI government (which she thinks should be a sort of exception from the normal US form of government) being unduly impacted by the granting of US citizenship to people that have been here for more than 5 years. it would be okay in florida or cali but not here, is what she surmises.

hmmm. let's go on. she says she would be okay with foreign workers getting permanent residency that would not allow them the right to vote. she claims that their vote will undermine and destroy our unique local CNMI form of government.

now i ask that you step back. what i am about to say will destroy her train of thought and her belief system.

i know first hand that ruth is not an NMD. i also know that she has voted here in the CNMI for years.

she along with many others have come to these, fragile shores, with a blue passport in hand and have registered to vote in this fragile government and have placed that vote.

upon doing so she has corrupted this fragile form of CNMI government. she has tainted the local vote and the local governmental direction with an outside vote.

what complaints has she ever issued on that front. as thousands of US citizens have landed on these fragile shores and cast their votes, changing the character of the CNMI, totally and radically.

why has she not professed outrage at not only those many US citizens who have moved to the CNMI in the last 20 years to teach, to doctor, to lawyer, to bum around and to do whatever they feel, casting their votes in this unique and fragile CNMI government?

the chance of a large corporation or a military buildup or just a ton of US passport holding citizens coming to the CNMI and registering to vote within 90 days is a legal possibility. why has she not preached about closing the door on this possibility.

why has voted, why is she writing a column that affects the mindset of local voters and influences their decision making. she is but a librian that arrived on these fragile shores many years ago. not any different than Mrs. (insert contract worker name) who cam here in 1989 to be a local librian and still resides on these shores today. the difference is that ruth can vote but Mrs (contract worker) still cannot.

a comparison which hits home a bit more is that of buckingham who arrived here a mere 6 years ago and is not only impacting our government through his vote. he is also instrumentally impacting through his audacious policy implementations (one may call them illegal) and Mrs. (insert contract worker) still can not simply vote.

ruth's logic is severely warped. either that or i have just not bore witness to her outrage at all the US citizens coming to these shores and affecting our fragile and unique form of government.

I read Ruth's column after I read your comment. I would not have expected Ruth to suggest chaining people to the islands. These are people who have given so much, who are vital to the community and economy, who are residents in every sense of the word EXCEPT for being politically and socially disenfranchised. These people did not commit a crime, yet some of the suggestions (not just Ruth's) sound more like prison sentences than status. Suggesting that long term foreign workers can stay and continue to work, to grow the economy, share skills, and contribute in endless ways, BUT they cannot vote, and they must stay in the CNMI in exchange for continued voicelessness, oppression, and disenfranchisement is not a deal the U.S. Congress should consider.That is a very un-American way of looking at these people!

We are not talking about other countries. We are talking about the United States of America. Slavery ended. This system is one step below slavery. Well, maybe half a step. People are not commodities and should not be used up or considered disposable.

I received a call Wednesday from my friend, Sumon who was cheated and abused in the CNMI. He is now a proud citizen of New Zealand! He has political and social rights. He is regarded as an equal, respected and treated with dignity! He was saying that while he was in the CNMI he hoped one day to be a US citizen, but he is grateful that he was able to break free and go to New Zealand, a beautiful place where he is truly an equal.

I hope that if by some slim chance the U.S. Congress does vote to chain the workers to the islands and denies them political and social rights that the long-term workers will consider leaving to go to other places where there will be welcomed as future citizens and treated with respect and dignity.

I called for a pathway to citizenship for foreign workers in the late 1980s and formally in written testimony in 1995. I will never support anything less. This is America!

I agree with those who have questioned why it is okay that a U.S. citizen from the mainland with no ties to the CNMI, who has contributed nothing can live in the CNMI for six months and vote, but someone who has worked for five years and has become a contributing community member cannot? How can the CNMI government justify bringing in 4,000 US citizen military people who potentially could all vote in the CNMI, but denying the people who are their neighbors, their co-workers, and in some cases their relatives the same opportunity? That anyone thinks someone who has lived in a community and established roots after 5 years should not have the right to vote is very offensive to me. It is contrary to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and to our democratic values. Our country is a nation of immigrants.

We don't just need comprehensive immigration reform in our country, but we need to educate our citizens in tolerance and diversity. The mentality that people from foreign countries are disposable commodities to be thrown out when they speak up and ask for rights or to be replaced by a less demanding foreign worker is sick. And yes, sadly, some of the voices on this site are also racist. We need to pass laws, but we also need to educate and change hearts.

I agree with Wendy and with 12:40. Ruth said, "According to the web's Wikipedia, permanent residency, a concept recognized by many countries around the world, refers to people allowed to reside indefinitely within a country of which they are not a citizen. With some exceptions, depending on the country, the permanent residents have the same rights as citizens, except: they may not vote, they may not run for office, may not hold government jobs, may not own certain classes of real estate, are not issued a passport of that country, and may not apply for jobs involving national security."

It's like you can come to my house for dinner, but you cant have the salad, the main meal or the cake. But hey, you can wash the dishes!

What person with any self-respect would agree to a status that as Wendy says "chains them" to a tiny island and denies them political rights?

It is like they were brought here to cook them breakfast, lunch and dinner for 30 years straight without giving them a room. Just cook one meal, serve it, clean up, cook the next meal, serve it, clean...

Now they request a place to lay down and rest and they say, "GO HOME!".

What a piece of work.

Selfish, greedy, self-serving, pigs! This is not the America I know and love! Just turns my stomach.

---------

Wendy,

I do not understand the logic either. It is okay for an Fresh of the Boat foreigner to marry a local here get citizenship and Vote. It is okay for an US citizen of any ancestry to move here and vote in 90 days.

But they have such a warped and twisted sense of what these guest workers are, that they can not fathom ever giving them a right to vote or speak here in the CNMI. They are lesser people.

Sadly, Ruth and the vocal few that share her view see guest workers as a lower class of individuals. Equipped only to do our bidding. They can be seen from time to time but not spoken to and definitely under no circumstances EVER be given a pathway to citizenship or a right to vote. Okay there is one exception: they can marry a local and that brings them up a notch in our twisted CNMI class structure. Not truly to the status of a local but just a bit higher than a guest worker.

This is slavery mentality. This is the same view people had of women years ago. People could not imagine women or black people voting or working for that matter. Let them go out for a bit but don't let them have a life or vote or work. That is beyond them. You can free a few slaves but they can't vote. What would happen if we had a black US President or a woman. That would be catastrophic!

OMG! It is 2010 and this is what I read from a lady that has been here for years and you would hope could step back and see the error of what she is writing.

Free our CNMI Slaves but do right by them too. Give them a pathway to citizenship.

Ruth has a point. Congress should be aware that if they give citizenship to thousands of aliens. they may make the indigenous peoples a minority in their own land. The CNMI's people agreed to the Covenant, which said Congress could extend federal immigration law to the CNMI. They did not agree to voting rights for 16,000 people at once, simply because the CNMI brought in too many and treated them horribly. And not everyone who lives here can rightly be held accountable for what their corrupt legislators and greedy business owners did when they opened the floodgates to cheap alien labor. Is it right to make all CNMI citizens a permanent voting minority because of the mistakes of a few?

You may disagree with Ruth, but try to understand what she's saying before you start calling her a slaver and a racist. It's easy to call names; it's harder to exercise your brain and try to see another's perspective on a complex issue, and wrestle with how competing values can be reconciled.

Although I would love to see these workers get a Blue passport, if only for the reason to be able to vote and get rid of this useless elected. Take a look at the Phil system. Outsiders can get a permanent status and be able to do anything but vote. Come and go freely etc.To get a Phil. passport, (dual citizen is allowed)look at the requirements that anybody has to go through.Much more difficult than for a US passport, but along the same lines.The only reason that any outsider would want to get a Phil. passport would to be to vote.Anybody voting there would not make much different anyway.(because of the millions of people.BUT in the NMI anybody that vote would make a different.Give them all a Blue passport and change history in the NMI and replace this Govt.

You say that we agreed to the Covenant but not to voting rights for 16,000. You are right but not in the way you think. When we agreed to the Covenant we agreed to voting rights for any US citizen who chose to call the CNMI home.

There is no numerical cap on how many US Citizens would be allowed to vote and there definitely is no ethnic qualifier.

What Ruth and others are endorsing is the creation of new Jim Crow Laws. "They can be free but they can't vote. They can be free but they can't leave the CNMI. They can be free but they can't go to public school. They can be free but they can't avail of welfare."

Haven't we learned?

There is no defense of what she is endorsing. No defense except the sad defense that Jim Crow laws clung to as they were tossed out in courts after the freedom of the slaves was granted.

You said: Congress should be aware that if they give citizenship to thousands of aliens. they may make the indigenous peoples a minority in their own land.

No, the CNMI people made themselves a minority by bringing in hundreds of thousands of foreign workers and renewing them over and over and over. It was okay to be a minority as long the foreigners can be cheated, abused, oppressed, disenfranchised and as long as the CNMI can exert power and control over them, but once there is a chance that they will no longer be living as an underclass and once they can get well-earned rights, they must go! Disgusting!

The CNMI's people agreed to the Covenant, which said Congress could extend federal immigration law to the CNMI. They did not agree to voting rights for 16,000 people at once, simply because the CNMI brought in too many and treated them horribly. And not everyone who lives here can rightly be held accountable for what their corrupt legislators and greedy business owners did when they opened the floodgates to cheap alien labor. Is it right to make all CNMI citizens a permanent voting minority because of the mistakes of a few?

This did NOT happen overnight. The people of the CNMI KNEW what was happening and did NOTHING. They kept electing the same people. They kept listening to the business owners who stuffed their pockets. Almost every household had a maid! Everyone has some responsibility for this.

You may disagree with Ruth, but try to understand what she's saying before you start calling her a slaver and a racist. It's easy to call names; it's harder to exercise your brain and try to see another's perspective on a complex issue, and wrestle with how competing values can be reconciled. Ruth is neither a "slaver nor a racist." I respect her and she has a right to her opinion. However, I believe she is very wrong in her beliefs in this case.

You can't pick and choose what ethnic make up voters the CNMI will have. I don't hear anyone calling to close our border to US Citizens that fly out here to live. I don't hear people saying that kids born here to foreign workers can not vote. But what I do hear is people like Ruth saying that GUEST WORKERS should never be allowed to vote.

Please explain that to me.

If Ruth had a son that moved out here to live. And if her son stayed here for a few months, I am pretty sure that Ruth would insist that her son register to vote as it is the "right thing" for a citizen to do.

Why is that? Why would she look on her son a new comer to Saipan and see a person that should be an active citizen and should exercise his right to vote and not see the same in a guest worker that has lived out here and paid taxes for the last 3 years or more?

It is because the guest worker is sub-human. The guest worker is not in the same class as Ruth and her son. The guest worker (even if he calls Saipan home) is an outsider that is not from here. The guest worker's vote would destroy our CNMI government.

Her son's vote would be that of an American citizen. Albeit one that had just moved out here a few months ago.

I fail to see any rational or logical reason other than classism or racism for that rationale.

if IT&E decided to utilize its multi-million dollar grant to set up a high tech data center out here then they convinced google or another massive player to move out and set up shop. if those two entities used some old factories out here and created a massive hub of US Citizen engineers and others that they pulled over from silcon valley and hawaii. if in a matter of months they had 10,000 new to the island US Citizens working here and in 90 days the opted to register to vote, would Ruth and the rest of those that believe that the Covenant protects us from outside voting influence be up in arms?

they could do nothing to stop them other than seceding from the US.

the fatal flaw in ruth and other people's logic is that the Covenant somehow protects the CNMI from outside (non-local, non-NMD) voter takeover. they somehow believe that the USA agreed to us locals always controlling our government and us Chamorros and Carolinians always having a majority if not all votes in every local election.

THIS IS NOT TRUE!

when we signed onto and agreed by vote to the Covenant we agreed to abide by the US constitution. and that document does not allow for the discrimination or racial profiling when it comes to elections.

where the lawyers and the other people are getting their facts is beyond me. they are stating that the covenant should protect the locals from 14,000 votes coming from US citizens of various ethnic backgrounds (should congress grant foreign workers status). where does the covenant say that?

if a ton of people hopped across the border in AZ and were miraculously given green cards or US citizenship, no army in Saipan could stop them from hopping a plane and moving out here to live and set up home. no army could stop them from voting in a matter of months.

these lawyers who are stating otherwise need to go back to law school. they need to be disbarred. they need to be taught about the US constitution.

The CNMI people knew that if they endorsed the Covenant and became part of the American family, any U.S. citizen would be able to come here and vote. That was part of the deal. It was never part of the deal for the U.S. Congress to give voting rights to thousands and thousands of aliens over the objection of the CNMI's people. I understand your comments, Wendy, and those of the others who disagree with Ruth, but it sounds like they fall into two categories: those who want citizenship for foreign workers to compensate them for past injustices, and those who want citizenship for foreign workers to punish the CNMI for creating the mess.

" It was never part of the deal for the U.S. Congress to give voting rights to thousands and thousands of aliens over the objection of the CNMI's people."

The CNMI is free to object all they want. No objections from the CNMI have ever or will ever stop Congress from granting Citizenship to whomever they so choose.

More than 7 million aliens have been granted US Citizenship via amnesty in the last 25 years. They can come vote here and live here anytime they wish. These were former ILLEGAL aliens that are now proud Americans.

More than 30 million have been granted Citizenship via other methods (marriage, adoption, work, etc). They too can come to the CNMI.

You all fail to realize that the CNMI is US SOIL. WE ARE PART IF THE USA! God Bless America!

It seems like Ruth has gone over to the "dark Side" (Covenant) I am truly surprised in her comments. Not being disrespectful here, but maybe her illness is starting to affect her mind. I still wish her well.

" It was never part of the deal for the U.S. Congress to give voting rights to thousands and thousands of aliens over the objection of the CNMI's people."

Although we have acted like it for years, the CNMI does not own the guest workers. They are not the CNMI's to do with as we please. Congress HAS given voting rights to millions of aliens that can come here and vote at any time no matter how much the CNMI governor stamps his feet.

Anonymous 8:16I want them to have U.S. citizenship because I believe that any foreign worker who comes to U.S. soil to work for 5 or more years should be eligible for a green card and direct pathway to citizenship. I am not just talking about the CNMI-I mean anywhere in the U.S.

If there is a person who wants the foreign workers to have citizenship to punish the CNMI,I don't get that way of thinking. To have them as citizens would be a blessing and surely not a bad thing.

You spoke of the 7 million former illegal aliens getting amnesty through U.S. programs. I have a co-worker who was once among the illegals. He was given amnesty through President Reagan's program. How lucky we are that he was given amnesty! He is a person who is patriotic, generous, a true role model for all students, and he spends his summers working with Mexican children and the special olympics.

But we should not shift the focus and blur the lines. The foreign workers in the CNMI are LEGAL foreign workers who were invited because they were needed and they were renewed over and over and over because they were valued.

There are long-term guest workers who have lived and worked in the CNMI longer than Ruth, longer than AG Buckingham, longer than pro-Fitial attorneys re-planted from the mainland, longer than some vocal Saipan Chamber members, and many longer than the 18-25 year olds who CAN vote. How does it make any sense that these people have no voice and people still want them to have NO voice? This is NOT an American concept! This is NOT a moral concept. This is NOT a democratic concept.

DOI's recommendations call for a pathway to US citizenship for people out here that have worked in this community legally for many many years.

I mentioned the illegal aliens that were granted amnesty over the past years and their ability to vote in the CNMI if they ever felt like it just to illustrate a point.

The CNMI can not pick and choose who they feel should vote based on ethnicity or how a person came to be a US Citizen or where.

There are lawyers (Deanne, Cinta, Horey, etc) that are badly mistaken. They must check their premise. They believe that the Covenant gives us the right to determine which US Citizens can vote. They think that the Covenant protects a upholds an indigenous majority vote.

IT DOES NOT!

Our CNMI guest workers that have lived and worked out here LEGALLY for the last 5+ years MUST get a pathway to US Citizenship. The federal government can extend nothing less.